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10. Taxonomy and Selection
- Johns Hopkins University Press
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[ 52 ] ten v Taxonomy and Selection tHe soLution to tHe vexing Question of why descendents diverged from their ancestors came to Darwin one day while he was riding in his carriage near home. He wrote in his autobiography that “the solution . . . is that the modified offspring . . . tend to become adapted to many and highly diversified places in the economy of nature.” This ecological niche concept helped him formulate the crux of his argument—that natural selection picks out the best-adapted variation for a given environment. Hooker wrote to Darwin that “no one has hardly a right to examine the question of species who has not minutely described many.” So with his Geological Observations on South America ready for publication in October 1846, Darwin took Hooker’s advice to heart and turned his attention to the Cirripedia —the barnacles. This was his contribution to formal taxonomy, and these studies lasted eight years, dealing with 10,000 specimens of all known living and fossil forms of barnacles . This taught him to think about homology (the structural similarity between parts of different organisms) and embryology and made him a respected systematist. Midway through his research, in frustration at its slow pace, he wrote, “I hate a barnacle as no man ever did before.” However, he persevered and produced a monumental fourvolume work that is still held in high esteem. From the barnacles , Darwin learned about the wide range of variation a [ 53 ] species could possess and how each species was adapted to its environment. He also deduced how crablike ancestors gave rise to barnacles. His family became so accustomed to his spending hours in his study minutely examining barnacles that one of his boys once asked a friend, “Where does your father do his barnacles?” Daughter Elizabeth “Bessy” (1847–1928) entered the Darwin household on 8 July 1847, and son Francis (1848–1925) was born on 16 August 1848. He later became a botanist, qualified as a physician, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and was knighted in 1913. Darwin’sbarnacleworkwasinterruptedbyhisfather’sdeath in November 1848 as well as by the further decline of his own health. His stomach problems were so severe that some days he vomited constantly and could barely work. A friend recommended the trendy “water cure,” and Darwin took his entire family to Dr. James Gully’s hydropathic facility at Malvern, near the border of Wales. The spa treatments—which many, Darwin in 1849, at age forty, by T. H. Maguire. He was already a Fellow of the Royal Society. (The Bettman Archives) [54.242.75.224] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 12:33 GMT) [ 54 ] even then, recognized as quackery—were based on the ability of cold water to stimulate circulation; Darwin was wrapped in wet sheets and doused with cold showers. He planned to be away for only six weeks, but the whole family enjoyed the holiday and stayed for four months. Either the treatment or, more likely, the escape from the stress of his work and ideas made him feel much better. From this time onward, Darwin took a cold shower and morning scrub in the garden and believed that this improved his health. The Darwins’ eighth child, Leonard (1850–1943), was born on 15 January 1850. He eventually became a major in the Royal Engineers. In the summer of 1850, the Darwins’ eldest daughter Annie, already weakened by scarlet fever, started to show signs of illness. Her condition deteriorated, and in late March 1851 Charles took Annie, her sister Henrietta, their nurse, and Dr. Gully’s Hydropathic Establishment at Malvern. Inset, Dr. James M. Gully, physician and owner of the spa at Malvern, who treated Charles with cold water and made him give up the use of snuff. (Gerald Morice Collection; Wellcome Trust) [ 55 ] their governess to Malvern. Emma was eight months pregnant , and remained at Down with the other children. In midApril , at the age of ten, Annie died of tuberculosis, which was known as consumption in those days. Charles was especially close to Annie, and it was a loss from which he never recovered. Her death was also an important factor in Darwin’s abandoning his last vestiges of Christianity . Charles could not imagine a just and merciful God who would allow such suffering in innocent children. (Randal Keynes, Darwin’s great-great-grandson, described the touching story of Charles, Emma, and Annie during this time in his book Annie’s Box [2001].) Emma Darwin at forty-five, with son Leonard...